Electronic – Gerber verification for plated holes

gerberplated-through-holes

I recently designed a board and got them produced. I had specified plated holes at some locations. But the PCBs came without them (unplated). I decided to check the Gerber files to see if it was plated info. The design sure has plated holes.
How can I check in Gerbers the plating information ?

Best Answer

Drilling is usually defined by Excellon files, not Gerbers. But either way, the file itself carries no information about plating. There may be textual notes generated by the CAD software, but no machine-readable code.

Whether the holes will be plated or not depends on the board manufacturer and most of them require two separate files with specific filenames (for example pth.exc for plated and npth.exc for unplated).

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Strange Gerber Statement

The "D" indicates a decimal coordinate format rather than the integer format assumed by the alleged specification you linked to, which seems not to cover all features in the, shall we say "living language".

What your board house can support is between you and them; if there's an issue first recourse would be trying options in the output menu to get an integer format, next would be reprocessing the data with your favorite string-processing language (even sed would probably do). In either case you probably want to do some manual verification that the interpretation is as expected the first time around.

For example, here's a few lines snipped excerpted from a file I found with a google search for occurrences of your format string (source http://homecinepc.free.fr/bassm/serigraphie.ge4)

%FSDAX23Y23*%

X20.31Y34.3D02*
X22.85Y34.3D01*

For comparison, here's some lines from an "integer" gerber from an old project of mine:

%FSLAX24Y24*%

X006851Y007351D03*
X006851Y006351D03*

Electronic – DRC tool for Gerber files

DRC is a rules-based software that requires maintenance to latest IEC design specs. These change annually, so don't expect too much from a free DRC checker unless you are doing old technology.

Also beware that the requirements of pick and place, reflow/wave solder, and hand solder change all the rules.

You might be able to afford this: http://wssi.com/gerbtool/

Best Answer

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Strange Gerber Statement

Electronic – DRC tool for Gerber files

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